hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4488.txt

Episode: 4488
Title: HPR4488: Cheap Yellow Display Project Part 2: What is the problem? 
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4488/hpr4488.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-11-22 14:57:03

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4488 for Wednesday 15 October 2025.
Today's show is entitled, Cheap Yellow Display Project Part 2.
What is the problem?
It is hosted by Trey, and is about 6 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is, delving into the problem I want to solve using my cheap yellow display.
Hello again, this is Trey.
This is Part 2 in my cheap yellow display project series.
You can find Part 1 in Episode 4472.
We previously left our handy hero, learning about the technology of the cheap yellow display,
but without a compelling reason to begin using one.
As we rejoin the topic, it was Winter Field Day 2025, that would be January 25th and 26th.
Winter Field Day is actually two days, but yeah, January 25th and January 26th, 2025.
Winter Field Day is an annual event where amateur radio operators from around the world
gather some portable radio equipment and set up somewhere away from their normal
base of operations.
It is designed to encourage operators to practice their emergency preparedness skills in unfavorable
weather.
Usually, they will run their equipment using batteries or generators.
I chose this day because I knew there would be a good amount of radio traffic.
I had just finished tuning my first handmade, inverted V dipole antenna for use on the
10 meter amateur radio bands.
These bands span 28 megahertz all the way up to 29.7 megahertz.
I had the antenna connected to a 10 meter amateur transceiver to listen in on the radio traffic.
Yes, I will include pictures of the antenna in the show notes.
Scanning through the lower end of the band resulted in receiving a number of very strong
continuous wave signals.
This wave is abbreviated CW or Charlie Whiskey in amateur radio circles, and it stands
for Morse code signals transmitted over radio frequencies.
The tones indicating dots and dashes of Morse code were clearly audible through the radio
speaker.
Wait, stop time out.
I can hear you shouting as you listen.
This is supposed to be a discussion of the ESP32 cheap yellow display.
What does this have to do with amateur radio?
You know what?
You are absolutely right.
Now hold your horses and we will get there.
I barely learned Morse code as a child, and I used it a bit as an aviator in the 90s.
Well, when flying, I was always able to reference a visual representation of the Morse code beside
the actual letters for navigational aids and other things that I was using to Morse
code to identify, but that's neither here nor there.
The point of it is I never really became proficient.
Shortly after Winter Field Day 2025, I began taking lessons on Morse code with the goal
of becoming proficient at both sending and receiving Morse code around 20 words per minute.
This training may be the topic for another episode in a different series, maybe.
We'll see.
We'll see how my skills progress.
Anyways, I scanned further up the band, and I also identified some digital transmissions.
They sound like noise, sometimes like modems, other things like that.
I'm guessing what I heard was FT8, and further up the band I heard voice transmissions.
So my antenna was working, at least for receiving.
Now I've been a radio operator for a while.
A little back history.
I've had an amateur radio license since 2016, and I quickly progressed all the way up
to an extra class, which gives me permission to use all the amateur radio frequencies that
are allowed within the United States on the high frequency HF, very high frequency VHF,
and ultra high frequency UHF bands.
However, to this point, I have only actually operated on the VHF and UHF bands, and have
done so using mobile and handheld transceivers.
I inherited some HF equipment from a close friend who went silent key in 2023, and I was only
now trying to use it.
You can learn more about my friend, and about the term silent key, in episode HPR 3922,
with a link in the show notes.
Alright, back to field day.
There was far too much traffic, and it was way too intimidating for me to even consider
making my first attempt at transmitting on the HF bands.
Nope, no sir.
This would have to wait until later.
But I didn't need to determine how well my antenna would transmit.
I began to ponder my options.
I really did not want to talk to anyone until I listened to some more QSOs, and I could
implement proper radio practices.
Now the term QSO, that's QSO Quebec Sierra Oscar, is the amateur radio term for radio
conversations.
Anyways, I also have no interest in digital modes yet.
And I like the simplicity of voice and CW, so there I am back at Morse code again.
What if, what if there was a way that I could transmit a signal in Morse code and get
reliable feedback on signal propagation without the need to try to reply to any responses?
Now for this to work, it would need to be accurate and repeatable and properly structured
in timed Morse code transmission.
And it's way more than my training at the point of this recording, or even at the point
where this was happening, more than my training could can accomplish.
So this is something to think about, and think about, and think about.
Alright, enough thinking.
Tune into the next episode in the series to learn where these thoughts led me and how
in the world this all relates back to my cheap yellow display project.
Goodbye.
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